Black Friday

Obama and Mooch to Iran? Will Mooch have to cover up?

President Hussein Obama wants to visit Iran according to a report in a Kuwaiti newspaper. Here's a Google translation of the report.

Al-Jarida has learned from a U.S. diplomat that President Barack Obama is
seeking to visit Tehran in the middle of next year. The source said that the desire to visit is shared, and that Tehran and
Washington are waiting for the conclusion of the arrangements prior to
Iranian President Hassan Rohani issuing an official invitation to his
American counterpart to visit Tehran.

He pointed out that the most important detail that is outstanding regarding
the meeting is the question of a meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
and the possibility of not holding the meeting.

The source said that Obama was waiting for the invitation to devote his new
administration's policy in the region based on the principle of non-military involvement and balance. He wants to be the first U.S. president to
visit Iran since the Khomeini revolution in order to show that he is an
advocate of peace and dialogue even with those who chant death to America.

French court fines BDS'ers

A French court imposed a $1,300 fine on members of an anti-Israel group
who called on supermarket shoppers to boycott Israeli products.

The
Court of Appeals of Colmar near Strasbourg fined each of the group’s 12
members individually on Wednesday for their participation in a
pro-boycott activity in 2009-2010, which the court qualified as
“provocation to discrimination.” The court also gave the activists a
suspended jail sentence, according to a report by the CRIF umbrella
group of French Jewish communities.

The ruling reversed a 2012
verdict by the Correctional Tribunal of Mulhouse, which found the
defendants not guilty. Prosecutors filed the appeal, CRIF said in a
statement.

The actions for which the defendants were sentenced
took place in 2009 in a supermarket in Mulhouse and again in 2010. Some
of the defendants received a double fine for each action, CRIF reported.

The
perpetrators were sentenced in accordance with strict
anti-discrimination laws, including one passed by the French parliament
in 2003 known as the Lellouche Law, after the lawmaker who drafted it,
Pierre Lellouche.

In September, seven activists were given a $650 fine for a similar action in 2010 in a supermarket in Alençon.

I believe that one of the incidents in question is in the video I posted here. There's video of a 2011 incident here.

American and
Iranian officials have been meeting secretly in Oman on and off for
years, according to a respected Israeli intelligence analyst, Ronen
Solomon. And in the past three years as a consequence of those talks,
Iran released three American prisoners, all via Oman, and the US
responded in kind. Then, most
critically, in April, when the back channel was reactivated in advance
of the Geneva P5+1 meetings, the US released a fourth Iranian prisoner,
high-ranking Iranian scientist Atarodi, who was arrested in California
on charges that remain sealed but relate to his attempt to acquire what
are known as dual-use technologies, or equipment that could be used for
Iran’s military-nuclear programs. Iran has not reciprocated for that latest release.

Solomon, an independent intelligence analyst
(who in 2009 revealed the crucial role played by German Federal
Intelligence Service officer Gerhard Conrad in the negotiations that led
to the 2011 Gilad Shalit Israel-Hamas prisoner deal), has been
following the US-Iran meetings in Oman for years. Detailing what he
termed the “unwritten prisoner exchange deals” agreed over the years in
Oman by the US and Iran, Solomon told The Times of Israel that “It’s clear what the Iranians got” with the release of top scientist Atarodi in April. “What’s unclear is what the US got.”

The history of these deals, though, he said,
would suggest that in the coming months Iran will release at least one
of three US citizens who are currently believed to be in Iranian
custody. One of these three is former FBI agent Robert Levinson.

...

The facts of his case are still shrouded. On
December 7, 2011, Atarodi, a faculty member at the prestigious Sharif
University of Technology (SUT) in Tehran — a US-educated electrical
engineer with a heart condition, a green card and a brother living in
the US — arrived at LAX and was arrested by US federal officials.

He appeared twice in US federal court in San
Francisco and was incarcerated at a federal facility in Dublin,
California and then kept under house arrest. The US government cloaked
the contents of his indictment and released no statement upon his
release. His lawyer, Matthew David Kohn, told The Times of Israel he
would like to discuss the case further but that first he had to “make
some inquiries” to see what he was allowed to reveal.

In January, shortly after Atarodi’s arrest, his colleagues wrote a letter to the journal Nature,
protesting his detention. “We believe holding a distinguished
55-year-old professor in custody is a historical mistake and not
commensurate with the image that America strives to extend throughout
the world as a bastion of free scientific exchange among schools and
academic institutions,” they said.

Solomon, who compiled a profile of Atarodi,
believes that the scientist, prior to his arrest, played an important
role in Iran’s missile and nuclear programs. Atarodi, he said, has
co-authored more than 30 technical articles, mostly related to
micro-electric engineering and, in 2011, won the Khwarizmi award for the
design of a microchip receiver for digital photos. “That same
technology,” he said, “can be used for missile guidance and the analysis
of nuclear tests.”

Solomon further noted that the then-Iranian
defense minister and former commander of the revolutionary guards, Ahmad
Vahidi, attended the prize ceremony and that Professor Massoud
Ali-Mahmoudi, an Iranian physics professor who was assassinated in 2010, was an earlier recipient of the prize.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Atarodi
came to the US at the behest of the logistics wing of the IRGC [the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps],” Solomon said.

On April 26 Atarodi was flown from the US to Seeb military airbase in
Oman, where he met with Ismaily, and onward to Iran. “The release of
someone who holds that sort of information and has advanced strategic
projects in Iran is a prize,” Solomon said. The US, said Solomon, must
have already received something in return or will do so in the future.

Read the whole thing. So glad to hear that we're not the only country with an early release program for political expediency.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Light one candle

More light and then even more - that's the theme of Chanukah. Never stop growing, never stop brightening, don't let the light go out. The flame of Judaism is in your heart and in your hands. Use it to light one candle. And tomorrow, light another one.

Enjoy this new video and single, a Chanukah gift from Benny Friedman.Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Zvi S).

Only among Jews would this even have to be said

We Jews have a real self-destructive streak. I find it amazing that this even has to be said, but Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked has asked Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai to cancel a 'film festival.' A naqba 'film festival.'

Habayit Hayehudi faction chairwoman MK Ayelet
Shaked implored Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on Thursday to cancel an
upcoming film festival focusing on the Nakba, the Arabic term meaning
"catastrophe" that Palestinians and Israeli Arabs use to describe the
creation of the Palestinian refugee problem during Israel's War of
Independence.

"I was shocked to discover that Tel Aviv
Municipality was helping produce an anti-Zionist film festival at the
Tel Aviv Cinematheque. A review of the event's line-up clearly shows
that the films represented at the festival are of an anti-Zionist
nature," said Shaked.

The festival at Tel Aviv's art-house
Cinematheque theater, titled "48 mm -- International Film Festival on
Nakba and Return," began on Thursday. According to the theater's
website, the purpose of the festival is to "show films dealing with the
Palestinian Nakba and the return of refugees."

The festival is showing both full-length films produced
domestically by Palestinians and abroad, as well as a series of short
films produced by Israelis and Palestinians, covering themes related to
the Nakba. It will run until Saturday.

Israel's municipalities get funding from the central government. Tel Aviv ought to lose as much as this 'film festival' cost. This is disgraceful.

Britain and Germany block 'Palestinian' membership in International Olive Council

Britain and Germany have combined to block the 'Palestinians' from joining the International Olive Council as a 'member state.'

In April, as part of the peace talks with Israel, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas promised not to take unilateral action in joining international bodies.

Just recently Nabil Shaath, a senior official in the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO), threatened that his organization was
ready to join international organizations as
the talks have failed to deliver results in the course of 5 months. On
Friday Shaath emphasized that the PA is only remaining in the talks to free all 104 terrorists whose release was promised as a "gesture."

European diplomatic sources told Haaretz that German and
British representatives blocked the application, noting that if the PA
were to join the international organization it could threaten the peace
talks. US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to return to Israel next week to keep pushing peace talks.

...

Jews in Judea and Samaria have long argued that Arabs in the region
use the olive harvest as a pretext to prepare attacks on the Jewish
communities. Often PA Arabs insist on entering Jewish communities to
pick olives under IDF protection.

PA residents often prey on the ignorance of Western journalists, who
do not know that hacking off olive trees' branches is a token part of
the harvesting process. As such, olive harvest season has become a
breeding ground for false claims of vandalism.

Video footage
from October showed Arabs gathering near Itamar to ostensibly gather
olives, but secretly filming Jewish homes, while one Arab man made a
threatening throat-cutting gesture with his machete.

In March Itamar was the site of a massacre in which two Arabs snuck into a home and violently murdered 5 members of the Fogel family, including a 2 month old baby.

What the White House didn’t report is that the text of the accord
makes several major concessions to Tehran on the terms of a planned
second-stage agreement. Though White House officials and Secretary of
State John F. Kerry repeatedly said that Iran’s assertion of a “right to
enrich” uranium would not be recognized in an interim deal, the text
says the “comprehensive solution” will “involve a mutually defined
enrichment program with mutually agreed parameters.” In other words, the
United States and its partners have already agreed that Iranian
enrichment activity will continue indefinitely. In contrast, a
long-standing U.S. demand that an underground enrichment facility be
closed is not mentioned.

Mr. Obama and other U.S. officials have spoken about a six-month time
frame for completing negotiations, but the agreement says the six-month
arrangement can be renewed “by mutual consent” and that “the parties
aim to conclude negotiating and commence implementing [in] no more than
one year.” It also states that “there would be additional steps in
between the initial measures and the final step,” including “addressing
the U.N. Security Council resolutions.” Those resolutions order Iran to
suspend uranium enrichment, but the agreement does not say whether those
demands will be enforced.

The most troubling part of the document
provides for what amounts to a sunset clause in the comprehensive
agreement. It says the final deal will “have a specified long-term
duration to be agreed upon,” and that once that time period is complete,
“the Iranian nuclear program will be treated in the same manner as that
of any non-nuclear weapon state party” to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran thus could look forward to a time when there would be no sanctions
and no special restrictions on its nuclear capacity; it could install
an unlimited number of centrifuges and produce plutonium without
violating any international accord.

Administration officials say
they regard Iran’s agreement to the words “long-term” in the sunset
clause as a significant concession. In theory, this might mean 15 to 20
years. Iran, however, has proposed a far shorter period; we are told it
was three to five years. Whatever the final compromise, it would be
dangerous to allow this Iranian regime to have an unrestricted nuclear
program at any time — and it surely would be unacceptable to Israel and
Iran’s Arab neighbors. The United States should retain the ability to
block the expiration of controls with its veto in the U.N. Security
Council.

The more the government tries to push Haredim into the army, the more the Haredim flee

Rabbi Avraham Brown’s former jobs include working to integrate
hareidi men in the IDF and heading the Hesder yeshiva [Torah academy]
network. He spoke to Arutz Sheva about the planned law to mandate hareidi-religious enlistment.

“This law will torpedo the enlistment of thousands of hareidi men in
the upcoming years,” he warned. “[Even] hareidi men who aren’t learning
in yeshiva and were planning to enlist” will not enlist if the law
passes, he said.

“It’s a law that will hurt the economy, that will prevent thousands
of hareidi men under the age of 26 from working legally. It will also
hurt the Torah world, because they’re treating yeshivas like academic
departments, like the number of students can be cut,” he argued.

The Shaked Committee (Equal Burden of Service Committee), which is discussing the various options
regarding hareidi enlistment, has not even invited hareidi experts to
come speak, he said. “They didn’t invite Rabbi Rabad, who established
‘Shachar Kachol’ in the air force, or me,” he related.

The two met privately with committee head MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish
Home), he revealed.

“We sat with her at home and explained that those
who have dropped out and who aren’t learning in yeshivas could be
enlisted, that there is a hareidi consensus there, but unfortunately
they still have not discussed that proposal,” he said.

The depth of the mistake will soon come to light, he warned, “The
enlistment law will lead to conflict, and it will hurt the army… There
are enough [yeshiva] dropouts who could join technological units and
enlist later. All this debate just put a stop to everything.”

The rabbi’s warning follows a similar warning from Rabbi Yoel Shwartz,
who established the Netzach Yehuda (Nachal Hareidi) Brigade for
hareidi-religious soldiers. Rabbi Shwartz warned that if plans to
require hareidi men to enlist move forward, “nobody will enlist… Nobody
will dare to enlist.”

Former Chief Rabbi of the IDF and Rosh Yeshiva of the Itamar hesder yeshiva (Torah academy) program Rabbi Avihai Rontzki stated to Arutz Sheva Thursday
that the canceling of the Tal Law and the government's decision to
implement the Equal Burden law was a mistake from the very beginning.

"This is already a situation that is ex post facto, there is
no going back, because the legal process involved is complicated and
the current government is pushing the issue," he stated.

"There was no
reason to cancel the Tal Law, which enabled hundreds of religious
soldiers to serve [of their own volition]. The whole process of
eliminating the Tal Law, the involvement of Senior government officials
in the hareidi draft, and the desire to make this a national mission was
a mistake."

The Tal Law allowed full-time Torah students to defer military
service. Critics of the law were outraged at the fact that large sectors
of the hareidi-religious community were using the edict to permanently
dodge the draft and stay in yeshiva [Torah academies], causing a number
of potential economic and sociological problems; the Law was eventually
declared unconstitutional in 2012 by the High Court on grounds of
promoting inequality.

According to R' Rontzki, the current government does not have a clear
understanding of the importance of Torah study for the Jewish people.
"Thousands of people who learn Torah bring tremendous blessing to the
Jewish people," he stated. "The problem is that the hareidi-religious
community refuses to engage in the same national service that the rest
of the country does, and it's an anathema to many."
...
Despite disagreeing with the law in principle, Rontzki emphasizes that
Shaked is pushing to prevent the punishment for draft-dodgers from
becoming a criminal offense. Instead, Shaked, following the Jewish Home
party stance, supports economic sanctions on draft refusers.

Suffice it to say that the Haredi community is circling the wagons on this. There are horror stories floating around, mainly about a small group of boys who were summoned to the IDF during the first weeks after the Tal Law expired, and who signed enlistment papers without realizing what they were signing (since then, the boys have been told to give only 'name and identification number'). Those boys are now deemed AWOL, and the army has been aggressively searching their parents' homes in the middle of the night. I heard at least one story today of a boy who has been jailed.

Ironically, under the Tal Law, the boys were required to report to the IDF every six months where they were registered in yeshiva, as well as reporting whenever they transferred yeshivas. Today, the boys are no longer required to report, and the IDF is looking for needles in the haystack - hence the raids on the boys' homes. The boys are hiding out in their yeshivas and no one knows anymore who is where.

UN declares 'international year of solidarity' with the 'Palestinian people'

The UN General Assembly passed six more resolutions concerning Israel on
Monday, including one that called for Israel to return the Golan
Heights to Syria.

Of the six resolutions one said Israel should
cease imposing its jurisdiction on Jerusalem and another one, labeled
68/L.12, declared 2014 the “International Year of Solidarity with the
Palestinian People.”

This resolution calls on the Committee on
the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to
“organize activities to be held during the year.”

Of the other
three resolutions, one praised the Secretariat’s Division of Palestinian
Rights for its role in “raising international awareness of the question
of Palestine;” the second called for a peaceful settlement to the
conflict and said that Israel, as “the Occupying Power,” must “comply
strictly with its obligations under international law,” and the third
advocated for the “dissemination of information on all the activities of
the United Nations system relating to the question of Palestine and the
peace process.”

You have changed my mourning to joy

Here's Avraham Fried with Hafachta Mispedi, You have changed my mourning to joy. This song comes from Psalm 30, which is said every day after mourning prayers during Chanuka (abroad - in Israel it is only said on five or six of the eight days and not on the day(s) that coincide with the Sabbath and Rosh Chodesh).

Maccabees - the story of Chanuka

I suspect that many of you think Chanuka is a story of a military victory and it's partly that.

But it's important to realize that the war of Chanuka was a spiritual war more than anything else. Unlike the story of Purim, where the Jewish people were threatened with physical annihilation, on Chanuka the story is spiritual. Had the Jews abandoned their religion, the Greeks would have left them alone. That's why on Purim the main celebration is food (yes, I know there is also a megilla to be read), while on Chanuka, the main celebration is praising God (Hallel v'Hodaa).

I cannot vouch 100% for the accuracy of this video, but it seems pretty close. I have no idea who did it.

Former national security adviser blasts P 5+1 agreement with Iran

Iran will not only get to keep its existing 18,000 centrifuges; it will
also be allowed to continue developing the next generation of
centrifuges, provided it does not install them in uranium-enrichment
facilities. Which is to say: Its uranium-enrichment capability is no
weaker.

Under the deal Iran is supposed to convert its nearly 200 kilograms of
uranium enriched to 20 percent purity — a short step away from
bomb-grade material — into material that cannot be used for a weapon. In
practice, this concession is almost completely meaningless.

The agreement does not require Iran to reduce its stockpile of uranium
enriched to 3.5 percent, not even by one gram. Transforming unprocessed
uranium into 3.5 percent-enriched uranium accounts for more than
two-thirds of the time needed to transform unprocessed uranium into
weapons-grade material. And given the thousands of centrifuges Iran has,
the regime can enrich its stock of low-level uranium to weapons-grade
quality in a matter of months. Iran already has enough of this material
to make four bombs.

The Geneva deal, in short, did not address the nuclear threat at all.
This was Iran’s great accomplishment. No wonder Mr. Rouhani boasted that
the world had recognized Iran’s nuclear rights.

...

There is no reason to think that the six powers will have more leverage
in the future than they had before the Geneva agreement. On the
contrary, they just gave that leverage away. After years of disingenuous
negotiations, Iran is now just a few months away from a bomb.

The West has surrendered its most effective diplomatic tool in exchange
for baseless promises of goodwill. I pray its gamble pays off, for if it
does not there will be only one tool left to prevent Iran from getting a
nuclear weapon. The Geneva agreement has made the world a more
dangerous place. It did not have to be this way.

The Thanksgivukkah Medley (Simple Gifts and Hava Narima)

Although tonight is only the second night of Chanuka - six more to go - today is the only day of Thanksgivukkah for the next 78,000 years or so. In other words, post all the Thanksgivukkah stuff today.

Israel's masochistic left

Daniel Seidemann, a leftist Israeli activist,
was hit by a rock on Saturday and required stitches in his head. He
wrote a ‘sentitive response’ on social media that was republished by
972MAG in a sympathetic way. Please read below and tell me if you find
Daniel’s reflection on being hit by a rock as courageous, or
extraordinarily delusional.

The rock that hit me yesterday was
not directed at me, personally. Most likely, it was hurled because I am
an Israeli – the occupier. It’s also possible that it’s because I am a
Jew, irrespective of the occupation. We will never know. But the
wonderful people who visited me today are living under occupation. My
occupation. I deserve no special dispensation for my “good behavior.”
They owe me no apologies.As long as the occupation exists, events like
this will happen and no one is exempt from them. I don’t romanticize the
prick that cracked my head open. But I don’t find it particularly
important if he is or is not apprehended. (OK – I do fear that he might
have just been practicing on me, and that more deadly violence can be
expected of him in the future). But this ends not when Palestinians
behave better, or when our Shin Bet becomes more efficient. It ends when
occupation ends. Until then, I remain a symbol of that occupation, and
not without reason. And no good deeds, as it were, will redeem me or
protect me.

As a 16 year old with my whole life ahead of
me, I did not want to be confrontational or controvertial with what I
write on this blog. I should not make enemies. But in light of what I
read, I have to ask; did the rock to the head affect Mr. Seidemann’s
sanity, or if he was of such a submissive disposition before it hit his
head? In any case, the dross that you just read in the last paragraph is
not a fabrication. It is a genuine, sad example of leftist submission
and self-dehumanisation.

The “Uncle Tomer” attitude of this submissive
Israeli is openly admitted. Seidemann says “there is I deserve no
special dispensation for my ‘good behavior’.” Good behaviour being a
synonym for submission, and as having full acceptance of the Arab ‘pure
victim’ narrative. The Arabs are the victims, even when they attack,
assumes Seidemann. They would, sadly, be victims in Mr Seidemann’s eyes
if the rock blinded him, deafened him, or anything to that effect. Such
is the naivité of someone with this viewpoint.

His statement also has a roaring spark of
disingenuity. The statement “I don’t find it particularly important if
he is or is not apprehended” may present a typical peacenik “turn the
other cheek” image. That is, until the hypocrisy of the statement is
exposed immediately as he follows up his comment with “OK – I do fear
that he might have just been practicing on me, and that more deadly
violence can be expected of him in the future”. He admits the hatred and
the murderous intent, and then goes on to justify it. He admits that
the same hatred that propelled an arm to throw a rock at his head is the
same hatred that fuels the rockets that hit Israeli towns like Sderot
and Ashkelon, and then accepts it.

Obama wilting under heat from Netanyahu

The Washington Post's David Ignatius reports that President Obama has asked Prime Minister Netanyahu to cool the criticism of the P 5+1 deal with Iran.

A wild card in these negotiations is Israel. Obama has asked Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a breather from his clamorous
criticism and send to Washington a team that can explore with U.S.
officials a sound end-state strategy. Perhaps the United States and
Israel need a back channel, outside the bombastic pressure campaign by
Israeli advocates.

Israel is not the only country in the region seeking assurances on Iran.

Bahrain's
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah al-Khalifa has asked that
the P5+1 states "clarify to the leaders and people of the region that
the agreement that has been reached serves to achieve regional security
stability."

Addressing the start of a regular meeting of Gulf Arab
interior ministers in Bahrain, he said Gulf Arab states wanted to be
certain that the accord "would not be at the expense of the security of
any member of the (Gulf Cooperation) Council".

"It is not a secret that we in Bahrain have felt [threats that] affect our security, with all foreign-related links to that."

Bahrain,
which hosts the US Fifth Fleet as a strategic bulwark against Iran
across the Gulf, has suffered frequent unrest since 2011 when its
Shi'ite Muslim majority took to the streets demanding reforms and a
bigger say in government.

The Sunni Muslim monarchy in Bahrain and
in neighboring Saudi Arabia have regularly accused Shi'ite Iran of
fomenting the unrest. The Islamic Republic denies such accusations.

I don't believe they will ever reach a final agreement - at least not on terms that meaningfully restrict Iran. The only question in my mind is whether or not Iran will develop a weapon before the six months are up.

Thanksgivukkah classic

Breaking: 2-year old seriously injured when 'Palestinians' pelt car with rocks in Jerusalem

The pictures are from a different terror attack - not tonight's.

A 2-year old girl is in serious condition tonight after 'Palestinian' terrorists pelted the car in which she was a passenger at the entrance to the Armon HaNetziv neighborhood in southern Jerusalem.

A Magen David Adom team gave the baby initial medical care and took
her to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. She suffered a serious head injury.

Security forces are combing the area in search of the terrorists.

Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) reacted to the attack and said that
it joins a long list of similar serious incidents. "I strengthen the
prime minister's hands," he said, "[in the hope] for a determined, quick
action to put an end to the Stone Age."

Ten residents of Jerusalem's Issawiya neighborhood, aged 15-17, were arrested earlier this week on
suspicion that they threw firebombs and rocks at an IDF base on Mount
Scopus, at Hebrew University buildings and at police vehicles.

At least two of the teenaged terrorists are linked to the DFLP terror organization.

Democrat Menendez slams Obama on Iran sanctions

Menendez said he appreciated President Barack Obama’s
ultimate goal to find a diplomatic solution with Iran. But he will keep
pressing for fresh sanctions that take effect if the country stops
cooperating with Western powers, seeking to increase pressure on Iran to
reach a permanent nuclear deal.

And Menendez (D-N.J.) made it clear he did not look kindly on White House press secretary Jay Carney’s recent description of the continued push for congressional sanctions as a “march to war.”

“What I don’t appreciate is when I hear remarks out of the White
House spokesman that say … if we’re pursuing sanctions we’re marching
the country off to war. I think that’s way over the top, I think that’s
fear-mongering,” Menendez said on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Menendez didn’t dispute that he and other senators might be playing
“bad cop” to the Obama administration’s “good cop,” pushing for the
Senate to enact a fresh round of penalties on Iran while Obama warns against “tough talk and bluster.”

“We consistently hear about how we have to worry about the
hard-liners in Iran. And it seems that the Iranians get to play good
cop-bad cop, [Iranian President] Rouhani as the good cop, the
hard-liners as the bad cop,” Menendez said.

He described a dual-track diplomacy with the White House that would
say to Iran: “‘Hey look. This is what’s coming if you don’t strike a
deal.’ And at the same time the administration would say, ‘But if we
strike a deal those sanctions will never go into effect.’”

Menendez and other powerful Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.)
have not been shy with their criticism of an interim deal struck by
Secretary of State John Kerry that temporarily rolls back sanctions on
Iran in return for a slowdown of the country’s nuclear program. They are
vowing to work with Republicans on a fresh wave of sanctions when the
Senate returns on Dec. 9, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) said he will “take a look” at.

I would love to see Menendez and Schumer start standing up to Obama. But given the last five years, it's hard to believe that's really going to happen.

Israeli experts have estimated that Tehran's schedule for nuclear
enrichment has only been delayed for up to two weeks, according to the
report, less than one week after a deal has been reached between Western
powers and the Iranian government regarding the nuclear program.

The estimate may confirm Netanyahu's condemnation of the deal - which
is an interim agreement which lifts economic sanctions for a slowing,
but not stopping, of Iran's nuclear production - as a "historic
mistake."

The concern in Israel is that Iran will wait for an international
crisis, or an internal crisis in the United States, as a prime
opportunity to drop a nuclear bomb on its enemies. The deal provides
international support for Iran's nuclear program by allowing it to
continue in any capacity - thus making the global community powerless to
stop a nuclear Iran on legal grounds.

The report states that Iran is likely to fire up their 18,000
centrifuges and produce a nuclear bomb in the event that the Islamic
Republic sees the golden opportunity to use nuclear warfare - deal or no
deal. A nuclear warhead would then be ready in as little as 36 days.

...

Meanwhile, the US has declared their support for the Iranian to
"continue building" their nuclear reactor in Arak. The support is based
on terms which prevent Tehran from producing nuclear fuel, or using the
heavy water reactor; however, these cannot be constantly monitored,
experts claim.

The report also says that Iran does not have the capability of reducing the enrichment level of its already enriched uranium.

Who says Americans favor Iran deal?

Voters are almost evenly divided over a treaty the United States has
reached with Iran to slow that country’s nuclear weapons program and
tend to think the arrangement is likely to make things worse in the
Middle East.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41%
favor the short-term deal than ends some economic sanctions on Iran in
exchange for verifiable cutbacks in the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Forty-three percent (43%) oppose that deal. Sixteen percent (16%) are
undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
...
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on November 25-26, 2013
by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage
points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen
Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Lady Arrogance

Tzipi Livni says we should forget Iran and concentrate on the 'Palestinians' because we'll get a much better deal in that negotiation (could it be worse?) because she's in charge.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator in the current
round of peace talks with the Palestinians, says substantial progress is
being made, in spite of recent skepticism displayed by her Palestinian
counterparts.

Let's see. The second in command of the 'Palestinian' negotiating team resigned due to lack of progress. Saeb Erekat agreed to stay on because Abu Mazen begged him to stay - and Saeb made clear that's why he's staying. Nabil Abu Rudeineh was on Israel Radio saying that no progress has been made and that nothing has moved since the negotiations started. Sounds like 'progress' to me.

In an interview with Esti Perez on Israel Radio's program Midday,
Livni told listeners that preventing failure in current negotiations
will be difficult and will require her "experience and expertise," and
added that she first and foremost intends to protect Israel's best
interest.

So what's her next move? Threaten to resign? Take her party out of the coalition but insist on remaining in charge of 'negotiations'? This woman's arrogance and hubris are seemingly limitless.

She
also pointed out that the six months in which countries will be
negotiating a permanent accord with Iran are, not coincidentally, the
same period left in the nine months US Secretary of State John Kerry
allocated for talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Like the 'Palestinians' will matter if we get nuked.... And by the way, it's going to be more than six months, because even the Europeans admitted today that the six months don't start until the inspectors get there, and the inspectors aren't getting there until after the first of the year.

She said that rather than complain about the interim deal reached with
Iran in Geneva, Israel can help get a better deal by doing its part in
the peace talks.

Doesn't the government reject the idea of 'linkage' between Iran and the 'Palestinians'? Oh wait, Livni does whatever she wants anyway....

There has only been one politician as arrogant as Livni in the history of the State of Israel: Her old boss Ehud Olmert.

Livni needs to be removed from any position of responsibility. Unbelievable.

'Palestinians' destroying priceless archaeological site from Hasmonean times

News of PA digs at the site is particularly of concern given the
organization's penchant for rewriting history. In 2011, amid renewed PA
digs in Shechem, which the Bible records was bought by Jacob (Yaakov),
Hamdan Taha, director of the PA's Department of Antiquities, said the
dig would help in “writing or rewriting the history of Palestine.”

The Field School guides discovered the archaeological digging during a
trip taken in advance of a walking tour planned for December 6 during
Hanukkah. The Field School said Israeli groups have not traveled the
area in roughly 20 years.

Given the lack of a mandate for rule and for IDF involvement in Area
A, the School said "all that's left is to hope that the findings will be
dealt with according to the great importance the site has to the Jewish
people."

The Hasmoneans successfully forced the occupying Greek Empire out of
Israel and established their own dynasty over 2,000 years ago.
Their revolt, sparked by Greek decrees outlawing Judaism, lead to the
purification and rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Regarding the site, representatives from the School explained that
Judah Maccabee, a key leader in the uprising, died three years after the
Temple was purified. Following his death "the Hellenist Jews together
with the Greek army returned to rule over Judea and the gains
accomplished by the Hasmonean revolt nearly fell completely. The
recovery from this hard setback happened in the Judean desert between
Bethlehem and Tekoa at the hill named Beit Betzi."

At the ruins remains of a magnificent fortress from the Hasmonean and
Early Roman period were found. According to Dr. David Amit's research
in the 1980s the site played a critical role in the Hasmonean struggle
against Greek forces.

Comment needed?

Great news: London mediating indirect talks between Obama and Hezbullah...

... because the only terrorists in the world belong to al-Qaeda.... Oh, wait... didn't we finish al-Qaeda when Bin Laden died?

No, really. The United States of Obama is using London to negotiate with Hezbullah to fight jointly against al-Qaeda. My enemy's enemy is my friend or something like that. You can't make this stuff up....

The US and Hezbollah are in secret indirect talks managed by London in
order to deal with the fight against al-Qaida, regional stability, and
other Lebanese political issues.

The ongoing negotiations with
Iran have led to a change of perception, and opened the door to dialogue
with Hezbollah and Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani.

Rouhani spoke to British Prime Minister David Cameron last week, pushing London to re-open the channel with Hezbollah.

According to senior diplomatic sources quoted in the report in the Kuwait newspaper al-Rai on
Wednesday, British diplomats are holding discussions with leaders of
the Lebanese organization and transferring the information to the
Americans.

...

Because the US recognizes both the political and military wings of the
party as a terrorist organization and refuses to distinguish between
them, unlike the British, American officials cannot legally meet with
any member of the organization.

But according to the sources, the
US are willing to hear the views of the party and “warm up to a direct
relationship in the future.”

Maybe I should have been an Arik Einstein fan

I was never an Arik Einstein fan.

That's not because I had anything against him. It's because over the years I listen to less and less secular music, and because I've never really been into Israeli secular culture. (Most of the secular music I post here is in English and it's stuff I remember from 40 years ago).

Some of you may have heard that Einstein passed away last night at the age of 74, which is considered quite young today. Two things about the aftermath of his death caught my eye.

One was one of my Israel Haredi Facebook friends (yes, there are some) who has friends across the spectrum, who posted that many Haredim were following what was happening with Einstein with baited breath. She wrote (in Hebrew) that she didn't understand why, until Uri Zohar (a popular entertainer who became religious many years ago) eulogized Einstein today as "a mentch."

The other is the photo above. It's a quote of Einstein's on Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I will translate it for you.

I didn't vote for Netanyahu. My views are far from his, and he made mistakes, but with that, I believe that they are acting unjustly toward him. They are attacking him, and I am disgusted by the intensity of the scorn and hatred that they are displaying toward him. How much can they squeeze his blood with armed slander and with such an appetite. It's disgusting!

The Prime Minister was one of those who paid his respects to Einstein as the latter's body lay in state in Tel Aviv this afternoon.

And so, I should post at least one Einstein song. Let's go to the videotape.

A day of historic firsts

Thursday is Thanksgivukkah, the first time ever that Chanuka and Thanksgiving have coincided. I've saved a lot of posts for the day for you....

But in addition to that historic first, here is a post listing all of President Hussein Obama's historic firsts. It's the longest list I've ever seen on the blogosphere other than the list of people who have been banned from Chuckles the Clown's Little Green Footballs.

Spokesman for the Majlis Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said on Tuesday that about 4.6 billion dollars of Iranˈs blocked oil revenues would be freed.

Hosseini quoted member of Iranˈs nuclear negotiating team Abbass Araghchi as saying that per the Geneva deal, no more sanctions will be imposed and oil sale will be kept intact under present conditions.

אקדומי פורענותא לא מקדמינן?

I hope you'll all forgive the Hebrew title, but it's kind of hard to translate meaningfully. Let me explain.

In Jewish law, when certain fast days fall on Saturday, we put them off to Sunday. The exception to this is the Fast of Esther, which is advanced to Thursday. The reason? Because the other fast days that are put off relate to tragedies and we don't advance the observance of tragedies. The Fast of Esther (just before Purim), on the other hand, is related to the war in which the Jews routed the Persians, and does not recall a tragedy. If it falls on Saturday, we advance it to Thursday (which is good because Purim in such a case would come out on Sunday except in certain cities in Israel where it would come out on Monday).

Now that I have confused you totally, I'm sure you all understand why I used a four-word Hebrew phrase to title this post.

I would have thought that much of the United Nations would consider the partition of 'Palestine' into Jewish and Arab states in 1947 - accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs who went to war over it - a tragedy. Therefore, if the date on which that 'tragedy' is observed - November 29 - falls on Black Friday, as is the case this year, it ought to have been pushed off to Saturday, Sunday or Monday.... Instead, the United Nations advanced it to Monday. Maybe they were afraid the media would take the weekend off?

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor slammed the U.N. for its conduct regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Anti-Israel bias pervades the U.N. system all
year round," Prosor said. "In 2012, [the U.N. General Assembly] found
the time to pass 22 resolutions condemning Israel -- compared with only
four that single out other nations," Prosor said. "The worst human
rights abusers receive a fraction of the condemnation that Israel -- the
only democracy in the Middle East -- receives. These irresponsible
actions have irreversible consequences. The states that rubberstamp the
anti-Israel resolutions every year, have given the Palestinians a false
sense of reality and fed their culture of victimhood."

"All those who claim to advance peace must
remind the Palestinians that there are no shortcuts," Prosor said.
"Peace is not achieved by changing your nameplate at the U.N.; it isn't
achieved by unilateral actions or by passing a string of anti-Israel
resolutions; and it won't be achieved in Manhattan, Midtown east, but
rather in the Middle East. So long as the Palestinian leadership chooses
symbolism over pragmatism, it will be harder to achieve peace."

Prosor said that U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel "have no relationship to the facts on the ground."

"Just last week the U.N. adopted nine
resolutions condemning Israel," Prosor said. "One of these resolutions
condemned Israel's treatment of the Syrian people. Condemned Israel's
treatment of the Syrian people? It is inconceivable that while Israeli
hospitals are treating the Syrians who escaped [Syrian President Bashar]
Assad's massacre, the U.N. is denouncing Israel's treatment of the
Syrians."

"If that weren't enough, the GA will soon vote on another resolution
calling on Israel to hand over the Golan Heights and its residents to
Syria. It is nothing short of absurd for the U.N. to demand that even
more civilians be subject to Assad's brutality."

Aren't you glad that your country belongs to the UN and that your taxes support it?

Why is the P 5+1 agreement with Iran like Obamacare?

Iran said it would not make "any further advances of its activities" on the Arak reactor, according to text of the agreement.

"The
capacity at the Arak site is not going to increase. It means no new
nuclear fuel will be produced and no new installations will be
installed, but construction will continue there," Zarif told parliament
in translated comments broadcast on Iran's Press TV.

But experts have said an apparent gap in the text
could allow Tehran to build components off-site to install later in the
nuclear reactor. It was not immediately clear if Zarif was referring to
this or other construction activity.

Just like when the Obama administration couldn't wait for a vote for long enough to have Congress read the bill.

'Worse than Munich'

Consider: Britain and France came to Munich
as military weaklings. The U.S. and its allies face Iran from a position
of overwhelming strength. Britain and France won time to rearm. The
U.S. and its allies have given Iran more time to stockpile uranium and
develop its nuclear infrastructure. Britain and France had overwhelming
domestic constituencies in favor of any deal that would avoid war. The
Obama
administration is defying broad bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress for the sake of a deal.

As
for the Vietnam parallels, the U.S. showed military resolve in the
run-up to the
Paris Accords
with a massive bombing and mining campaign of the North that
demonstrated presidential resolve and forced Hanoi to sign the deal. The
administration comes to Geneva fresh from worming its way out of its
own threat to use force to punish Syria's
Bashar Assad
for his use of chemical weapons against his own people.

The
Nixon
administration also exited Vietnam in the context of a durable
opening to Beijing that helped tilt the global balance of power against
Moscow. Now the U.S. is attempting a fleeting opening with Tehran at the
expense of a durable alliance of values with Israel and interests with
Saudi Arabia. "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is the title of a
hilarious memoir by British author
Toby Young
—but it could equally be the history of Barack Obama's foreign
policy.

That's where the differences
end between Geneva and the previous accords. What they have in common is
that each deal was a betrayal of small countries—Czechoslovakia, South
Vietnam, Israel—that had relied on Western security guarantees. Each was
a victory for the dictatorships: "No matter the world wants it or not,"
Iranian President
Hasan Rouhani
said Sunday, "this path will, God willingly, continue to the peak
that has been considered by the martyred nuclear scientists." Each deal
increased the contempt of the dictatorships for the democracies: "If
ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella,"
Hitler is reported to have said of Chamberlain after Munich, "I'll kick
him downstairs and jump on his stomach."

And
each deal was a prelude to worse. After Munich came the conquest of
Czechoslovakia, the Nazi-Soviet pact and World War II. After Paris came
the fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh and the humiliating exit from the
embassy rooftop. After Geneva there will come a new, chaotic Mideast
reality in which the United States will lose leverage over enemies and
friends alike.

Sorry, but we look like babies throwing a tantrum

The Levy Report asserted that Israeli construction in Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria is legal, and that Israel ought to legalize the 'illegal outposts.' When it came out, the media went ballistic, and Prime Minister Netanyahu was urged by 'American Jewish leaders,' to bury it in order to appease the Obama administration. And in fact, that's what happened: the report was quietly buried.

A political campaign to push the government to adopt the report
petered out after Netanyahu was elected to a third term as prime minister in
January 2013.

“It’s our duty to ensure that Justice Levy’s report is
adopted by the government,” Rotem said on Tuesday.

He added that its
passage would repair the damage that had resulted from private attorney Talia
Sasson’s initial government commission report on West Bank outposts, which the
government received in March 2005.

Her report focused on the creation of
illegal outposts and argued for their removal.

In contrast, the Levy
report seeks to authorize them and normalize the treatment of land issues in the
West Bank as much as possible.

The Constitution, Law and Justice
Committee debate may be able to shine a political spotlight on the report, but
cannot advance it legally.

New legislation on settlement building would
need Netanyahu’s support and the initial approval of the Ministerial Legislative
Committee.

Since entering office, Netanyahu has rejected the option of
dealing with issues of Jewish building in the West Bank through Knesset
legislation, preferring instead to use existing mechanisms.

First, it could be advanced as a private member's bill, but that's almost beside the point.

Look, I love the Levy report (if you read the links at the top of this post, I think that comes through loud and clear), and I think it should have been adopted over a year ago when it first came out. But pushing it now, like all the housing announcements for Judea and Samaria this week (which I didn't bother to post because I didn't have the time and I don't believe they will ever happen), makes us look like a bunch of spoiled children throwing a tantrum because we didn't get our way on Iran. If you want to push the Levy Report, please, go ahead and push it, but don't drop it like a hot potato when and if (which is admittedly unlikely) Obama gives up on an arrangement with Iran.

And the same goes for all the housing announcements. Do it because it's the right thing to do and not because of Iran. As Teddy Roosevelt said, "speak softly and carry a big stick."

The Brits favored Chamberlain's Czech policy in 1938 too

According to the Reuters/Ipsos survey, 44 percent of Americans
support the interim deal reached between Iran and six world powers in
Geneva, and 22 percent oppose it.
While indicating little trust
among Americans toward Iranian intentions, the survey also underscored a
strong desire to avoid new US military entanglements after long, costly
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even if the Iran deal fails, 49
percent want the United States to increase sanctions and 31 percent
think it should launch further diplomacy. But only 20 percent want US
military force to be used against Iran.

The survey's results suggest that a US public weary of war could help bolster Obama's push to keep Congress from approving new sanctions that would complicate the next round of negotiations for a final agreement with Iran.

Public opinion in 1938 seemed reasonably in favour of Neville Chamberlain and what was later to be termed appeasement when he returned with "peace in our time" after the September 1938 Munich Agreement. Opinion polls appear to show that the majority of the nation was in support of the stance taken by Chamberlain.

"Should Britain promise assistance to Czechoslovakia if Germany acts as it did towards Austria?" (Asked March 1938)

Yes: 33%
No: 43%
No opinion: 24%

"Hitler says that he has no more territorial ambitions in Europe. Do you believe him?" (Asked October 1938)

Yes: 7%
No: 93%

"Which of these views comes closest to your views of Chamberlain's policy of appeasement?" (Asked February 1939)

1. It is a policy that will ultimately lead to a lasting peace in Europe: 28%

2. It will keep us out of war until we have time to rearm: 46%

3. It is bringing war nearer by whetting the appetite of the dictators: 24%

4. No opinion: 2%

On March 16, 1939, Hitler invaded the half of Czechoslovakia that was not ceded to him. That (finally) changed British public opinion:

Is the British government right in following a policy giving guarantees to preserve the independence of small European states? (Asked April 1939)

Yes: 83%
No: 17%

Here in Israel we have no delusions (from the first link).

In Israel, a Channel 2 poll conducted Tuesday night showed that a
majority of Israelis backed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent criticism
of the Obama administration’s Iranian policy, with 58% saying the
criticism was justified, and 28% saying it was not.

In addition, most Israelis – 60% – said that the agreement endangered Israel, while 25% said it did not.

"Thanksgivukkah Pie", Holiday Tribute by Benji Lovitt

I have so many Thanksgivukah posts lined that I figured I'd better start posting them or you'll miss out. But first, a word of explanation.

Thanksgiving is set as the fourth Thursday in November, meaning the latest it can be is 11/28. 11/28 is also the earliest Chanukah can be.

The Jewish calendar repeats on a 19-year cycle, and Thanksgiving repeats on a 7-year cycle. You would therefore expect them to coincide roughly every 19x7 = 133 years. Looking back, this is approximately correct – the last time it would have happened is 1861. However, Thanksgiving was only formally established by President Lincoln in 1863. So, it has never happened before.

Why won't it ever happen again?

The reason is because the Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out of sync with the solar calendar, at a rate of 4 days per 1000 years. This means that while presently Chanukah can be as early as 11/28, over the years the calendar will drift forward, such that the earliest Chanukah can be is 11/29. The next time Chanukah falls on 11/28 is the year 2146, which is a Monday. Therefore, 2013 is the only time Chanukah will ever overlap with Thanksgiving.

Of course, if the Jewish calendar is never modified in any way, then it will slowly move forward through the Gregorian calendar, until it loops all the way back to where it is now.

So, Chanukah would again fall on Thursday, 11/28...in the year 79,811.

It has never happened before, and it will never happen again.

Here's "Thanksgivukkah Pie", Holiday Tribute by Benji Lovitt.

Let's go to the videotape.

Chanuka starts Wednesday night, and if you want to send me some Chanuka gelt (money), I'd be thrilled.... Just click the PayPal on the side.

So Obama lied... what else is new?

“What has been released by the website of the White House as a fact
sheet is a one-sided interpretation of the agreed text in Geneva and
some of the explanations and words in the sheet contradict the text of
the Joint Plan of Action, and this fact sheet has unfortunately been
translated and released in the name of the Geneva agreement by certain
media, which is not true,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham told the Iranian press on Tuesday.

Afkham and officials said that the White House has “modified” key
details of the deal and released their own version of the agreement.

Iran’s right to enrich uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, is fully recognized under the draft released by Tehran.

“This comprehensive solution would enable Iran to fully enjoy its
right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under the relevant
articles of the NPT in conformity with its obligations therein,” the
agreement reads, according to a copy released to Iranian state-run
media.

“This comprehensive solution would involve a mutually defined
enrichment programme with practical limits and transparency measures to
ensure the peaceful nature of the programme,” the Iranian draft reads.
“This comprehensive solution would constitute an integrated whole where
nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

Iran’s objection to the deal raises new concerns about final stage
talks meant to ensure that the deal is implemented in the next few
weeks.

About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com